In the case of the WhiteLotus Society of the 13th – 14th centuries, this incarnation became attributed to Han Shantong, who led the Incense Army to first quickly take over northern China, and later regain all of the country. There was considerable public support of this rebellion, as the sect banned (for religious reasons) the pillaging of captured territory.

The effect of the White Lotus Society on Buddhism is evident in political revolution of the largest and most powerful nation to contain Buddhism in the 14th century, and the growth of a temporarily successful messiahist "cult" that reinvigorated a Buddhist populace that was slowly becoming more and more lax in its religious fervor.